Vedas and Shākhās of Maithil Brāhamins

All Maithil brahmins of Śāṇḍilya gotra belong to Sāmveda (Chāndoga), and all remaining Maithil brahmins belong to Yajurveda (Vājasaneyi, Mādhyandina Shākhā). Other Śākhās of Vedas in Maithil brahmins have vanished, but names of many villages, such as Rigā for Rgveda, Jajuār for Yajurveda, Samaul for Sāmaveda, Athari for Atharvaveda, etc, still remind that once upon a time brahmins of all Śākhās lived in Mithila.

Organisation into gotras and mūlas :
All Maithil Brāhamins are divided into organised (vyavasthita) and unorganised (avyavasthita) types. There are 7 gotras among organised and 12 gotras among unorganised Maithil Brāhamanas. There are 7 organised gotras based on 7 rishis and 34 (according to some 36) organised mūlas (mūla means root or origin), and a total of 19 gotras and 180 mūlas. On the basis of three criteria, namely purity of birth, conduct and learning, 20 mūlas were declared to be uttama (best), and 14 or 16 were deemed medium, both taken together were called organised mūlas. In the following table, among the organised mulas, best (uttama) mūlas have been indicated in regular typeface and medium (madhyama) mūlas in italics. Unorganised mūlas do not show such differentiation.

7 Organised Gotras

Table of 7 Organised Gotras

Gotra

Pravara

Mūlas (organised)

Mūlas (unorganised)

Śāṇḍilya

Śāṇḍilya, Asit, Deval.

Sarisab, Paboli, Khandvālā, Gangoli(also called as Gangoulee),Sodarpur, Jajiwāl, Dighabaya (also called as Dighabe).

Organisation into Grāma

Each Mūla was further sub-divided into several Grāmas. Literally, Grāma means village, but in present context it does not mean modern village, but original village. Each Maithil brahmin is expected to remember his/her Śākhā, Gotra, Pravaras, Mūla and Grāma. The last denotes the village of residence when this organisation was introduced. Last mention of such an organisation or reorganisation dates to cir. 1324 AD, just before Mithilā was conquered by Giasuddin Tughlaq's army and the last independent Hindu king Harisinghdeva fled to Kāthamāndu. For instance, Śāṇḍilya gotra has 172 Śākhās dispersed in 132 original Grāmas ; these Śākhās were branches of a mūla, e.g., Gangoli mūla has 14 Śākhās distributed into 20 Grāmas.